Northeastern School District Special Education Services

2025-2028 Northeastern Special Education Plan

March 14, 2025

 
Each school district shall develop a special education plan aligned with the strategic plan of the school district under 22 Pa. Code § 14.104. The special education plan shall be developed every 3 years consistent with the 3-year review cycle of the strategic plan of the school district. A special education plan reflects ongoing programs and services and incorporates anticipated changes in programming as a result of corrective action generated by the cyclical monitoring and improvement planning and other factors. 
 
A copy of the  Board Approved plan (April 14, 2025) has been posted below. A hard copy is available at the Administration Center for public review during normal office hours. If you require it in a different language, please email nesdspecialed@nebobcats.org.

• 2025-2028 Special Education Plan

Annual Public Notice

ANNUAL PUBLIC NOTICE OF SPECIAL EDUCATION SERVICES AND PROGRAMS, SERVICES FOR GIFTED STUDENTS, AND CHAPTER 15/SECTION 504 SERVICES

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Determinate of an appropriate evaluation, a student could qualify for special education services according to Chapter 14 State Regulations.  A child with a disability means a child is evaluated in accordance with Federal Law 300.8 as having:

• Autism
• Deaf and Hard of Hearing
• Emotional Disturbance
• Mental Retardation
• Multiple Disabilities
• Other Health Impairment
• Orthopedic Impairment
• Specific Learning Disability
• Speech/Language Impairment
• Traumatic Brain Injury
• Visual Impairment

Northeastern School District, in conjunction with Lincoln Intermediate 12 and neighboring school districts, provides services for students with disabilities.

Accommodation: Refers to how the typical environment, instruction, or service for a student with a disability is changed so that the presence of the student's disability does not unnecessarily affect learning.

Assistive Technology Device: A piece of equipment or a product which is used to increase, maintain, or improve the way a student with a disability interacts with and communicates with their environment.

Assistive Technology Services: Services that help a child with a disability use an assistive technology device. These services include evaluating the needs of the child, providing the device, and then training the student, the student's family and the staff who work with that student on the use of the device.

Benchmark: Describes the amount of progress the student is expected to make towards a measurable annual goal within specified segments of the year.

Career Assessment: A process, beginning as early as elementary school and continuing through adulthood that assists a student to develop educational plans in order to acquire skills related to employment.

Case Management: The coordination of educational services, information, and administrative activities for an individual student.

Evaluation Report (ER): A document prepared following a psychoeducational evaluation, which in detail, identifies the student's needs, strengths, disability and specially designed instruction which might be needed for the student to make progress in the general education curriculum. The Evaluation Report does not identify a placement. This is the role of the IEP Team.

Community Agency: A service provider offering programs such as vocational rehabilitation, mental health, mental retardation, and housing to community residents.

Community-Based Instruction: Educational experiences conducted outside the school setting.

Conflict Resolution Techniques: Interpersonal strategies designed to calm an adversarial situation and bring the opponents to a collaborative decision.

Curriculum: A series of planned instruction that is coordinated, articulated, and implemented in a manner designed to result in the achievement by all students of specific knowledge and skills and the application of this knowledge.

Curriculum-Based: Assessment and instruction which is directly connected to the content of the curriculum.

Curricular Modification: Changes made in curricular content, learning outcomes, goals and/or objectives in the general education curriculum.

Daily Living Skills: The activities related to independence in the home and community such as self-care, housekeeping, transportation, budgeting.

Evaluation: Must occur prior to placement to determine if student qualifies as a student with a disability and in need of specially designed instruction. It must be nondiscriminatory and individualized. Student must be assessed to determine the adequacy of instruction in the areas of disability, progress in general education curriculum, supports necessary , need for related services, functional behavior assessment, and assistive technology.

Exceptional Student: A student who has a physical, sensory, mental or emotional disability, or who is mentally gifted, and has been determined eligible for special education by an IEP team..

Free Appropriate Public Education (FAPE): Special education and related services provided at public expense. A program which meets the standards of the state education agency (SEA) and which is reasonably designed to yield meaningful educational benefit and progress for the student.

Functional Vocational Assessment: An evaluation that provides information about job or career interests, aptitudes and skills. It can be a combination of standardized and performance-based measures and should indicate what a student can do and can learn, and should be performed in a natural setting.

Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA): A shared decision-making process, providing an appropriate evaluation and education with zero rejection.

Individualized Education Program (IEP):This document is the heart of special education. It specifically details and outlines those factors which qualify the student as a student with a disability and the specially designed instruction, which when incorporated in the student's program, will enable the student to make progress in the general education curriculum. The IEP sets forth goals and objectives, based on the assessment of the student, to systematically increase the student's learning. Each IEP is individualized for the student; it is developed by the IEP Team annually and reviewed and/or revised at least every marking period when progress toward the achievement of the goals is reported to the parents.

IEP Team: A team composed of the student's parent(s), regular education teacher, special education teacher, the local education agency (LEA) representative, and the student, when required. The team designs an Individualized Education Program.

Instructional Strategies: Methods of providing information or teaching skills to students which are designed to achieve a specific goal.

Interagency Agreement: A formal written understanding among agencies regarding their shared responsibilities for providing information and services.

Interagency Collaboration: A process which involves the co-planning of service delivery and the shared responsibility for the services provided for students with disabilities among several agencies in a given community. .

Job Coach: A professional who provides individual or group assistance to a student in job placement, travel training, and skill training at a job site. The job coach frequently provides assessment information to the student's IEP team.

LEA Representative: A school district or intermediate unit employee serving on the IEP team who is qualified to provide or supervise special education, is knowledgeable about the general curriculum, and who can commit the resources of the school district.

Local Interagency Transition Planning: Collaboration among various community service providers and local school districts to address the needs of students with disabilities.

Local Transition Council: An interagency group of school districts or a single school district, community service providers, parents and others who address the current vocational needs of the student to prepare the student for post-school activities and assure supports for the post-school transition needs of eligible students in a community.

Measurable Annual Goals: Components of the IEP which define what the student can be expected to learn in a year within a specific instructional area. 

Multidisciplinary Evaluation (MDE): Once referred for an evaluation, the MDE team members work together to complete a Multidisciplinary Evaluation. This pulls together assessments, information to identify the student's strengths and needs, and determines if the student qualifies as a student with a disability according to State Standards and if the student is in need of specially designed instruction. This information is presented in the form of an ER (Evaluation Report).

Multidisciplinary Team (MDT): Those individuals, primarily school staff and parents, who have knowledge or work directly with the student.

Notice of Parent Rights: An explanation of the parent's rights for their child to receive FAPE (Free Appropriate Public Education). Must be presented and explained to each parent a minimum of three times during the IEP development or revision process (See section on NOREP specifics). Also referred to as Procedural Safeguards.

Notice of Recommended Educational Placement (NOREP): Legal document that states the student's placement, outlines alternate options which were considered and why they were not selected. Parent signature required approving placement. Must be done each time student's program changes significantly in any way.

Performance-Based Assessment: A type of assessment based upon whether a student performs an observable task.

Post-School Outcomes: A component of the IEP which defines what the IEP team expects the student to be doing after high school in the areas of employment, education/training, community living and recreation/leisure.

Present Levels of Educational Performance (PLEP): A section of the IEP which summarizes the student's performance in the current program, details strengths and needs, and discusses how the student's disability will affect involvement in the general education curriculum.

Procedural Safeguards:  A set of requirements that go across the laws and regulations of IDEA to protect the rights of children with disabilities and their families, particularly in regard to the access to free appropriate public education (FAPE).

Related Services: Services which help a student access or benefit from special education programs. Special transportation, speech therapy, counseling, school health services and occupational therapy are examples of related services.

Self-Advocacy: The ability of a student to effectively communicate or assert interests, desires, needs and rights as well as to explain the disability and its effects on learning and other life activities.

Specially Designed Instruction: Adapting the method or delivery of instruction to meet the unique needs of the exceptional student that result from the student's disability or mental giftedness and which ensures access of the student to the general curriculum.

Supplementary Aids and Services: Aids, services and other supports provided in general education classes or other education-related settings to enable students with disabilities to be educated with nondisabled children to the maximum extent appropriate.

Transition Coordinator: An individual, or group of individuals, employed by a school district who makes sure that transition activities and services are addressed and implemented for each secondary student with an IEP.

Transition Services: A group of coordinated activities, provided over a period of time, which support a high school student with a disability in the movement from high school to adult life. These services focus on what the student wants to do after high school in the areas of education or training, employment and community living.

Travel Training: Instruction that enables students with disabilities to learn the skills necessary to move effectively and safely from place to place within their environment.

Vocational Assessment: A comprehensive process conducted over a period of time which services as a basis for planning an educational program. Its purpose is to identify individual characteristics, education and training needs.

Vocational Education: Educational programs offering a sequence of courses that are directly related to the preparation of individuals for paid employment.

IEP Document
Procedural Safeguards

In order to qualify as a protected handicapped student the child must be of school age with a physical or mental disability which substantially limits or prohibits participation in or access to an aspect of the school program.

These services and protections for "protected handicapped students" are distinct from those applicable to all eligible or exceptional students enrolled (or seeking enrollment) in special education programs. 

Desk Reference
Implementation of Chapter 15 Guidelines

Title 22 Education, Chapter 16: Special Education for Gifted Students regulations, the Parent Guide to Gifted Education, the Basic Education Circular Special Education for Gifted Students and the Gifted Guidelines reflect Pennsylvania's commitment to gifted students as "children with exceptionalities" and therefore in need of specially designed instruction. 

Overview of Gift Education at Northeastern School District

Lorraine Coombes (coombesl@nebobcats.org)

• Conewago Elementary
• Mount Wolf Elementary
• Shallow Brook Intermediate
• Northeastern Middle School
• Northeastern High School

Emily Zelinka (zelinkae@nebobcats.org)

• Orendorf Elementary
• York Haven Elementary
• Spring Forge Intermediate
• Northeastern Middle School

Gifted Education Frequently Asked Questions

What data is Used to Screen Students? Northeastern school District utilizes multiple criteria as established through a three tier gifted identification process. Tier I and II are used to locate students who are thought to be gifted and may need specially designed instruction. Tier I is a universal screener. The Naglieri is used to screen second graders and in other selected grades, which is determined by the Gifted Committee and the Assistant Superintendent’s assessment schedule. Any move-in students that may potentially be gifted are also screened. Upon completion of the universal screening process, students may be referred to further evaluation in Tier II. In Tier II, the district contacts parents to discuss a potential need for a gifted evaluation. Additional screening and more in depth data collection is used when completing a multiple criteria matrix. Following the screening process, students who qualify to move on will be evaluated accordingly through Child Find requirements. A parent or classroom teacher may request a gifted evaluation once a school year. The three tiered process outlined above is used for these requests. 

How Do Students Get Referred for a Gifted Identification Process?  As part of Tier I, students may be referred by a parent or teacher for the Gifted Identification Process. They also may be referred to Tier II by the Gifted Support teacher upon completion of the Universal Screener (Naglieri). 

How is Gifted Eligibility Determined?  Gifted Eligibility is determined through an additional two levels in the tiered process. Students who score the qualifying points in the multiple criteria Tier II matrix screening move to a Tier III multidisciplinary evaluation by a Certified School Psychologist. The School Psychologist uses a multiple criteria matrix and scores on cognitive abilities assessments to determine Gifted Eligibility. Eligibility for gifted services is based upon the regulations outlined in Chapter 16. A summary of these requirements includes the following:

1. Mentally Gifted means: a person who as an IQ score of 130 or higher OR when multiple criteria (*) indicate gifted ability.  Determination of gifted ability is not to be based on IQ score alone.  Deficits in working memory and processing speed cannot be the basis for an ineligible IQ score.  A person with an IQ score lower than 130 may be admitted to gifted programs when other educational criteria in the profile of the person strongly indicate gifted ability.  Determination of mentally gifted must include an assessment by a certified school psychologist.
2. (*) Multiple Criteria defined:

• A year or more above grade level for the normal age group in one or more subject areas, as measured by nationally normed and validated achievement tests.
• Observed or measured rate of acquisition/retention of new academic content or skills that reflect gifted ability. Rate of acquisition is the relative ease with which a student learns new information or acquires skills. Rate of retention is the ability of the student to retain and use information or skills in meaningful ways.
• Demonstrated achievement, performance or expertise in one or more academic areas.  Evidenced by excellence of products, portfolio/research, and team judgment.
• Early and measured use of high level thinking skills, academic creativity, leadership skills, intense academic interest areas, communication skills, foreign language aptitude or technology expertise.
• Documentation, observations, validated or assessed evidence of any intervening factors (i.e., ESL; gender, race bias; socio/cultural deprivation are masking gifted abilities.  

At the end of the evaluation process, the school district will complete an eligibility determination report (documented in a Gifted Written Report, also known as a GWR) within 60 calendar days of the returned parental consent given through Permission to Evaluate form. 

What is a Gifted Individualized Education Plan (GIEP), and who Qualifies for These Services?  Students who have been identified as gifted and are in need of specially designed instruction must be described in a Gifted Individualized Education Program (GIEP). The GIEP consists of yearly goals that provide enrichment opportunities in the areas of ELA, Mathematics, and Science. In addition, when needed, acceleration is also mentioned in the GIEP.

Education for Gifted Students (PDE)
Gifted Individualized Education Plan (GIEP)